Overcoming Adversity - After record floods with devastating consequences

A mural composed of 216 separate paintings

How does a town overcome adversity when hit by a flood, a hurricane, a tornado or earthquake?

For those not living in Canada, Cochrane is NW of Calgary, Alberta and east of Banff, in the foothills of the Rockies.

One year ago, record rainfall rapidly melted snow packs high up on mountain peaks. The result was devastating: torrents of water destroyed houses, bridges and highways.

In Calgary and cities further south, flooding resulting in billions of dollars of damage.

This mural was unveiled recently at the Cochrane Ranch House. Artists came together to declare that townspeople would help one another rebuild their beautiful city in the mountains. Each tile is one foot square, is its own individual picture and each is by a different artist. All of them together form this huge mural. You can click on each of the tiles to see them in detail.
Check out, especially, the horse's eye. Click on any square that makes up the mural to see what the square really is.

Greek Gods, myths and religion - Part 2 - 100 photos

The Statute of Athena - Notice the size of the man beside it.

When Paul arrived in the Hellenistic world, he faced a multitude of gods and temples. Greek mythology as it was taught across the Roman world, had a god, or goddess, or myth to explain everything, include human abilities and natural events, such as storms and thunder.

How did the message of Christ Jesus penetrate this ancient world view?

How die the apostles and early Christians overcome the tremendous bias against the statement "There is only One God"?

The photo of Athena is from the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada.

Click for 100 pictures in a photo essay

Greek Culture and Values - Part 1 - 100 photos

Sailing ships took Paul to Greece

Greek values and culture aren't "everyone's cup of tea", but a quick examination shows how utterly Greek life had implanted itself in the hearts and minds of people.

How was it that the message of a crucified carpenter, who was "the son of God" - as Paul clearly taught, could break into
that all-pervasive world view?

Read more

My person of the year is ... Billy Graham

Great commentary about Billy Graham.

Read here

A Great Pentecost, today! Wednesday, June 4 (!)

A Menorah, in Hebrew, spells the word, Yeshua (English - Jesus)

Today WAS Pentecost - Wednesday, June 4.  (!) the 50th day since Passover - for Jewish people who keep the traditions found in the Pentateuch, the Torah. It is a great day of joy. For 50 days they have been counting the "omer", the sheaf of bounty, since the "First-fruits".

This was new to me. I've been attending one of the Messianic Synagogues in Toronto and have been greatly blessed as I come to appreciate many additional levels of spiritual understanding that Messianic Jewish believers glean from the Scriptures, in the Old as well as the New Covenant.

For Messianic Jews, the Full Moon in their first month of the year governs the day of Passover, which doesn't obey the Julian of Gregorian Calendars (!)  Thus, they are not bound by the tradition that Passover always has to fall on a Friday, and the resurrection of Yeshua Messiah always falls on the Sunday.

Consequently, Messianic Jews received a double blessing today! In Jewish thought, Pentecost, of Shavuot, commemorates the day when the revelation of the Almighty, the Torah, came down to Moses on Mount Sinai. For them, the significance of this day is "the giving of the Law, which formed a diverse, ragtag tribe of people into a living community, the Jewish people."

Messianic Jewish believers and Christians find another, related, meaning, in which the importance of the day is "A second blessing, the giving of the Holy Spirit, which formed a diverse, ragtag people from around the world into a living community, into the living body of Yeshua Messiah!"

If you are reading this today, Wednesday, rejoice in the double blessing! If you read it on any other day of the week, rejoice! Thank God for the growing numbers of godly men and women among Jews in Israel and spread around the world.

Who needs traffic lights when cars move like this in Addis Ababa?

There may be a science to traffic lights, but I'm not sure about it.

Not after watching this video.

In Addis Ababa, cars go every which way, get through traffic, never really stop, only slow down, and then move, whether to the left or right - which ever is more convenient.

Cathie and I survived that traffic. Not sure that we survive the traffic jams in "organized" Toronto, though.

This is amazing - and yes, Africa is working very well, thank you! Click here for the video